So Microsoft’s new console has finally been revealed, and it’s called the Xbox One. I know, right? What an awesome name! Maybe people will start calling it ‘the One’ for short; I know I will! Hang on – ‘the one’ sounds like it’s the only machine worth having, that it’s the second coming of technology. I bet that never even occurred to Microsoft but boy, will they be happy when they realise once everybody starts calling it that! Still, if you look hard, after a few hours you’ll eventually find a few people on the internet moaning that they’re not excited about the Xbox One. This is for them (a pretty small audience, as we all know!).

First of all, as everybody was hoping, the new Kinect is now a permanent Xbox feature. Cool! Even better, you won’t need to worry about accidentally turning it off, as the camera and microphone will be working every second the One has power (and maybe for a little while after it’s switched off, who knows?). I’ve never been able to use Kinect really, as I only have four feet between my TV and my sofa. This new Kinect is so much better though – which we know because Microsoft told us so – that I’m sure that won’t be a problem. Hooray!

If you gave the futuristic Kinect tech to a company that didn’t care so much about gamers, they’d probably use a camera like this to secretly collect sound, pictures and video. Then this would all be used to develop new advertising, and even sold to other companies to see how people are reacting to their adverts and films and games and stuff. Anyway, I’m wasting time talking about stuff like this. This is Microsoft we’re talking about! The jolly green giant!

One of the biggest problems the haters have with the One is the way it’s going to lock every game disc to one Xbox Live account. So what? You can still sign in to your friend’s One (everybody will want one!) and play your games at their house. As Phil Harrison told Eurogamer, it’s exactly the same as things work now with discs. Tom Bramwell didn’t question this, and why would he? It’s true! The same. Exactly the same.

My perfect entertainment device, which puts ME at the centre of the experience.

Because Microsoft love us all so much, they’re even backing up this awesome idea with the ability to buy and sell secondhand games. They didn’t have to do that, you know! All you have to do is pay a little money, and bam – you can play a disc that’s already been played before. What an idea! Okay, you’re probably going to have to pay a shop for the disc and then Microsoft for the right to play it, but so what? Games for the One will be so awesomely awesome, it’ll be totally worth it.

Besides, think about it! Paying Microsoft a fee to be able to play a game somebody else has already bought is a brilliant idea. We ought to be grateful for this gift Microsoft is giving the world. It’s only right that they make as much money as possible from it. I think – I hope – that when you trade in a disc, you’ll lose the ability to play that game on your account. Don’t you realise what this means? If you want to play the game again in the future, maybe because your friends are playing the multiplayer or there’s interesting DLC or something, you’ll have to pay for the right to play it again. Genius! Even more money for Microsoft to keep the One being awesomely awesome.

Some people aren’t happy that the One isn’t backwards compatible, not even for digital games. So what? Haven’t you been paying attention? They don’t want you to buy this awesome new machine that requires you to pay for playing secondhand games, then have everybody playing old secondhand games on it for free. Are you stupid or something? And just to double check that you’re playing fair, it sounds like the One will need you to connect to the internet at least once every 24 hours. Man, there are some clever dudes at Microsoft! Now I think we can all understand this ‘internet connection required but not needed all the time’ thing. Now who looks stupid?

Amazingly, some people are even unhappy that indie developers won’t be able to self-publish One games. Come on – we all know that all these crappy games with crappy budgets and crappy small teams are crappy and crap. Apart from the ones where they hook up with a publisher that knows what they’re doing, of course – and these are the only indie games we’ll see! May I be the first to say, thank you Microsoft!

40 improvements!!! I’m pretty sure this is the new one.

A few idiots complained about the time spent at the One reveal talking about movies and TV. What’s the matter with these people? Don’t they like movies and TV? It was important for us to know all about this, because it shows just how flexitile (flexible and versatile, I made that word myself!) the One is. It’s even going to have a blu ray drive. A games console with Netflix, and a blu ray drive, and FIFA, and Call of Duty, and internet, and video streaming. I want one!

Speaking of which, sure, there weren’t a lot of games at the show. We’ve already been told that E3 will have all the awesomest games though, so just be patient! Anyway, a new Call of Duty (with a dog!!! lol) and a new FIFA – what more do you want? Sheesh. Okay, so these games are going to be on the crappy PS4 as well (and the crappy PS3) but you know what? I’ll be buying the One versions. I’ll be buying every multiformat title for the One. Why? The controller, of course! It’s got 40 improvements over the 360 joypad!!! I bet the PS4 controller has just got something crappy like 26 improvements or something.

The more I hear about the One, the more I love it. Like millions of people around the world (probably), I’ve already pre-ordered. When I finally have my new Xbox, I’m going to call both of my friends and boast about it. Oh yeah, the One has a phone app called Skype! I think that’s an exclusive.

Time to wave goodbye

The ‘E3 is dying’ angle has become something of a cliché over the last five years or so. Every year there will be a few sites eager to toll the bells for the industry’s most famous expo, yet every year it returns, dominating the games news as it does so. This year however, the idea seems to have some weight behind it. There’s reason to believe that in just a few years, E3 will be severely weakened – if it’s still around at all.

E3 used to be the gaming event of the year. All the biggest announcements were made there and only there, with little more than juicy rumours and the odd review to keep journalists busy for the six weeks before. This state of affairs has slowly but surely reversed itself over time, to the point where last year’s show contained almost nothing that hadn’t been explored in detail weeks or even months before. This year, all three console manufacturers have made their big announcements and/or will make their big announcements outside of E3. This includes two brand new consoles. Rockstar aren’t going to bother attending at all, and they have GTA V this year.

Make no mistake, E3 2013 will still be a grand affair. Very nearly almost all the publishers, big and small, will be there (not to mention dozens of peripheral manufacturers who see the expo as an excellent way of gaining publicity). There will be big-name games, some of which will open themselves up to people outside their respective companies for the very first time. The point is, though, that it’s a safe bet that we already know about almost all of these games. From a consumer’s point of view, all that will be new is a handful of screenshots and a tidal wave of trailers.

Except that this time round, that’s not strictly true.

Iwata and bananas are coming down the stairs…

Nintendo recently announced that they will be making an undisclosed number of their E3 demos available to the public – in the US at least – via Best Buy stores. For the first time, one of the biggest names in the industry will be offering playable versions of their E3 showcase (albeit in a somewhat restricted way) to the public at the same time as game journalists. This, combined with the Nintendo Direct broadcasts which are now fairly regularly fed to the public, could be a glimpse of the future which is destined to drag E3 kicking and screaming out of the picture. Time and time again, other companies follow Nintendo’s lead. This would be very different to mimicking hardware and software ideas of course, but… could it happen?

Let’s step back a moment and consider the bigger picture. The most important question, surely, is: Why would companies even want to abandon E3? After all, Nintendo are still to attend this year, despite the public demos and Nintendo Directs. The answer is simple: Money. It’s been well documented that the industry is now in the bizarre situation where a major release can sell multiple millions of copies within just a few weeks, yet still underperform. It’s well known, too, that many companies have been shut down (or have been forced to shut themselves down) over the last few years due to the harsh economic climate. In the games industry of 2013, it’s obvious why companies are drifting away from the world-famous, but expensive, E3.

On the other side, why would companies want E3 to stay? The oversimplified answer is, of course, that it’s an excellent way of promoting products they have on shelves or will have in the near future; which it is. There is a possibility though, however small, that Nintendo’s approach could – eventually – reach its natural conclusion. Nintendo Direct is clearly produced with a minimalist budget, but it does exactly what it is intended to do. Relying on these broadcasts alone for announcements would save Nintendo a lot of money, and it’s highly unlikely that this fact hasn’t occurred to executives in various other companies (as well as within Nintendo itself of course) Just take a look at Xbox Wire, launching just in time for the official announcement of Microsoft’s new machine. Much more intriguing, however, is Nintendo’s new decision to give the public a chance to play several E3 titles for themselves.

If that picture accurately depicts an “exciting” time on Xbox Campus, you shouldn’t hold your hopes for the next Xbox too high.

At the moment, the aforementioned demos are set to be limited to Best Buy stores in America and Canada. There’s no indication that they’ll be democratised worldwide via the eShop – though we can but dream. Imagine, however, that it became the norm for advance demos of all big titles from all big companies to be available for consumers to play in their homes. Were this used as an alternative to setting up booths at E3, it would be an immensely cheaper way for publishers to show off their upcoming games, and consumers would be excited about playing snippets of upcoming titles months in advance. It’s a win-win from a business perspective. This would essentially be preaching to the converted, however. It could be argued that this is essentially what reports from E3 are already doing though – this is one expo which has never been embraced by mainstream media.

Naturally, publishers would be reluctant to let the public get their hands on a game that they know full well will look shabby at retail, never mind in an alpha or beta state. This issue is already tackled via the medium of flattering trailers, however (not all games at E3 are playable). Personally, I would be fascinated and – heck – even excited to see what such a development would mean for games journalism (such as it is). Getting an E3 pass isn’t nearly as difficult as you might think; in fact, since they tiered entry a few years ago, it’s actually much more difficult to qualify for a fully-fledged Eurogamer Expo press pass. The upshot of this is that E3 is crammed full of sweaty kids with backpacks playing journalist, with professionals in the true sense of the word in the minority. Now, I’ve seen many hobbyist writers who I genuinely believe to be more talented than all or almost all of their full time counterparts. The sad truth is though that the overwhelming majority of such writers quite frankly stink at what they do, which in no small part contributes to the sorry state of what passes for videogames journalism today.

A certain type of writer reports back from E3 with the stench of ‘I’ve played this cool stuff you haven’t so listen up’ permeating their work. Others rely on shaky, badly lit, muffled off-screen video footage from the show floor for hits, as they know that many people will desperately consume every last morsel of information regarding unreleased games – because, of course, they have to rely on secondhand testimony. Others still simply do their best to report back from the expo, but need guidance to sharpen their writing that they’re just not getting. So what would happen if E3 demos were handed to the public in parallel to reporters? Or even if most games appeared at E3 only in video form? Said reporters would effectively be rendered useless.

In this situation game journalists would really, really need to up their, well… their game. Interest in video and demo impressions would plummet, as only those without the relevant devices and/or an internet connection would be unable to play these games for themselves. In order to grab and retain the attention of readers, journos would have to provide consistently engaging writing with a unique, addictive angle (perish the thought). Worst of all, with all these financial cutbacks, there might not be any more free posters and t shirts!

The ball is money, and Joe Hart is… company… metaphor…zzz.

There are still certain elements that could not be replaced by direct marketing, which is why there’s a good chance E3 will never die out completely. When there’s at least one new console at the show – such as this year – it won’t be possible for consumers to experience the unreleased machine for themselves at home. Interviews, too, can never be amply replaced. There’s a world of difference between a developer fielding unexpected questions from various interviewers, and the overly sterile ‘interviews’ carefully crafted by publishers and deemed suitable for public consumption.

With Sony and Microsoft seemingly determined to push “social” gaming and breaking down barriers between advertisers and consumers respectively, such a future almost seem inevitable. If – and I do realise it’s simply an ‘if’ – this does come to pass, would the millions of dollars saved result in more risks being taken with development? Unlikely; but it would at least almost certainly make the future of the industry as a whole a lot more secure.

It may be a third person action game with melee combat, cover and guns, but Naughty Dog has ensured that The Last of Us is no lazily-filled Uncharted template. In fact, if Drake’s adventures are a mixture of Tomb Raider and a Donald P. Bellisario reimagining of Indiana Jones, then The Last of Us is a mixture of The Walking Dead and… more of The Walking Dead.

Robert Kirkman’s runaway success – or more specifically, the TV adaptation of his work – has clearly had a huge, undeniable influence on development. Though the preview code only gives a sliver of the game, it’s hard to imagine the omnipresent sense of untroubled nature and eerily abandoned Americana being dropped for the rest of the experience (not to mention the fact that the diseased are, to all intents and purposes, zombies). Then you also have suspicion of strangers being essential to survival, the need to scrabble around in abandoned buildings for supplies… but I’ll go into detail soon enough.

The Lincoln section of the demo opens in some woodland, and Joel and Ellie talk as they make their way through. It quickly becomes apparent that Ellie, with her enthusiasm and innocence, is meant as a narrative counterweight to Joel with his gruffness, pessimism, and Hero Beard. Although there was no real explanation of exactly how or why these two came to be together at this point, it speaks volumes for the writing and acting both that, even out of context, there’s a real sense of the two sharing a very recent yet important set of experiences.

“Give just £2 a month to provide American children with the unshaven heroes they need to fight off murderous mutants.”

This section also features the back-of-the-box feature of… planks of wood. They’re very big planks of wood though; long enough to bridge gaps between roofs, and awkward enough to elicit the occasional grunt from Joel to let you know that they’re heavy – but it’s not a problem because he’s a real man. The game was now and again fussy on exactly where you had to stand to lean the wood against a wall (so you can lift it up from a higher point) but nonetheless, this fitted in nicely with the initially quiet part of play.

Already armed with a few guns and a melee weapon in the preview, a few options were open to me when I encountered my first enemy. Said enemy was a more powerful type of infected, alone, with a crusty head that looked like the poor chap had a cold sore that got completely out of control. He hadn’t noticed me yet; I drew my pistol, and let off a few headshots.

He ran straight to me and killed me dead.

Next time, I went for the shotgun; I was dead before I managed a second shot.

Third time was indeed the charm, as I allowed him to rush me and made short work of him with my upgraded melee weapon. This surprised me, but it wasn’t an unpleasant surprise. This hints at a game where you’ll be grabbing seemingly random bits and pieces from the environment not only because it’s what the industry has taught you to do, but because the items and upgrades you craft really make a difference. There’s very little combat in the demo however, and I always had more ammo and/or weapons than I needed. How this pans out in the finished product remains to be seen.

“When I say ‘Look at that beautiful squirrel in the tree up there’, YOU DO IT! Now look.”

On my second run through, I decided to bypass this enemy entirely, and here’s where Naughty Dog take an important step away from Uncharted. Though this game is necessarily linear to keep a tight rein on the story, there’s reason to believe that it won’t be stiflingly so (as Uncharted 3 was). There are buildings and corners that hide ammo and crafting scraps, but they can be ignored – you can choose to carry only what you absolutely need, and also to forego the unique snatches of dialogue that these areas trigger. In fact, though I decided to ignore much of what I explored the first time round, I also stumbled upon a garden full of gnomes (causing Ellie to vocalise another unprompted memory) and a door I could jimmy open with a shiv that I’d crafted; both of which I’d missed in my first playthrough. It seems that there’s a lot the game doesn’t force you to see, and that’s brilliant.

The Pittsburgh section was very brief, and seems to have been included only to emphasise the fact that you’ll also have to fight ‘normal’ humans, and that this combat will be very different to fighting off unthinking zombies. Again, this is no Uncharted clone. Not only is there no snap-to cover, but you can carry more than two weapons. Most ammo was limited however and that, combined with painfully (and intentionally) slow reloading times, meant that accuracy was vital. I also paid the price for complacency regarding the AI, as I was taken by surprise when an armed enemy flanked me while I was busy keeping his friends across the road at bay.

Not all situations allow you to be stealthy…

Loading screens and on-screen hints encourage you to consider stealth for certain situations, but that wasn’t much of an option in the demo. Enemies usually made an appearance via set-pieces, where they were immediately aware of the player and on the attack. In addition, the crusty-headed zombie needs to be used carefully. Not only is it tougher than the others, it kills you instantly if you let it get too close. There’s nothing wrong with teaching the player to be cautious and to aim carefully; but there’s a fine line between education and frustration.

The Last of Us is a very pretty game crammed full of potential. In the demo at least the atmosphere is immediate and gripping; your AI partner never gets in the way, and never annoys; and combat strikes a neat balance between tight and pressurised. If done right, this could be something very special indeed.

Today is the day that the EU PlayStation Store finally carries Terraria. You may well be tempted to rush to your TV to buy it, especially as we told you what a good game it is in our review. But wait just a brick bustin’ minute! How would you like to get the game for free? We can help!

We have an EU PSN code to give away to one lucky reader. All you have to do is decode this mind-numbingly difficult anagram. Hidden in there, somewhere, is the name of a famous videogame involving blocks:

STETRI

Tough, no? Well if you think you can work it out, e mail your answer – along with your name and county (that’s county, not country) – to competitions [at] criticalgamer [dot] co [dot] uk. If it’s too difficult for you to work out though (and who could blame you?), or you fancy a second entry, follow us on Twitter and look out for the relevant message to retweet. All entries must be received no later than 6pm UK time on Wednesday 22nd May, after which time a winner shall be chosen at random. Good luck!

Terms and Conditions

• Entrants must be twelve (12) years of age or older to enter, due to the PEGI rating. By submitting an entry to this competition, you are declaring that you are no younger than twelve (12) years of age.
  
• The prize on offer is one (1) EU PSN code for a digital copy of Terraria.
• A broadband connection and EU PSN account are required in order to redeem this prize. Creating a PSN account is free.
• No alternative prize shall be offered. The prize, provided by ThingsWithWings for the purposes of this promotion, is non-returnable.
• Entries must be received no later than Wednesday 22nd May 18:00 BST. The winner shall be informed shortly after this date via e mail or Twitter Direct Message.
• Maximum two entries per person; one via e mail and/or one via Twitter, as detailed above.
• The winner will be announced on this website, via an update to this post.
• One entry per person. Employees of Critical Gamer, ThingsWithWings, any and all companies involved in the development and publication of Terraria, and their families are not eligible to enter.
• Anybody found to have breached any of these terms and conditions shall have their entry/entries disqualified.
• The decision of the Critical Gamer administration in all matters pertaining to this competition is final.

• Format: Vita (version reviewed, iOS version also due)
• Unleashed: May TBC
• Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment (Vita version)
• Developer: Lucid Games
• Players: 1
• Site: http://www.lucidgames.co.uk/product/jacob-jones-and-the-bigfoot-mystery/

Jacob Jones is made by Lucid Games, a phoenix which rose from the ashes of Bizarre Creations. On writing duties we have George Poles, an experienced scriptwriter whose impressive CV includes contributions to Horrible Histories and Mock The Week. All this talent has been used to stitch together an episodic point & click adventure which relies solely on the Vita’s large, pin-sharp, perfectly suited touchscreen. The question therefore is: What went wrong?

A cursory glance suggests that this is a game aimed at children and, while there’s much to support that idea, it seems most likely that this is a failed attempt to appeal to the whole family. The eponymous Jacob is a young lad reluctantly shuttled off to camp in an attempt to encourage him to mix with other children (presumably in an attempt to prevent him becoming a murderous psychopath in later life). Needless to say a Bigfoot is soon thrown into the mix, which leads to various shenanigans and, indeed, japes as Jacob determines to track it down.

The intro asks you to swing the camera around this car to find something, a neat idea that is forgotten for the rest of the episode.

One of the main problems this game suffers from is that it steals common ideas left, right and centre in a desperate attempt to maximise its appeal. Not only is the art design undeniably influenced by Double Fine (particularly Costume Quest), the Professor Layton games are aped to an embarrassing degree. People you come across will more often than not hand you a puzzle to solve as soon as you meet them; instead of coins, you’ll be scouring environments for rubbish to buy hints; and whenever you’ve finished a puzzle, there’s even a “dramatic” pause of three seconds or so before you find out if you’ve answered correctly.

The cast, too, is as uninspiring and overly familiar as the Saturday-morning-American-cartoon voices. There’s a gruff, stocky male teacher constantly suspicious of the children; a young, blonde, skinny female teacher suffering from prozac levels of relentless cheeriness; an unrealistically stupid boy whose depiction borders on mocking the mentally disabled; a young girl who’s a social outcast and proud of it; and so on. Thus far, the story is an amalgamation of all the most forgettable cartoon episodes this generation has ever seen. Despite the singing Bigfoot.

Worst of all, the script is crammed full of jokes that simply aren’t funny. The delivery is never particularly good, but in all honesty the vast majority of material never had any potential anyway. To rub salt in the gaping wounds of the writing, there are colossally clumsy attempts to provide pop culture nods and winks for older players. These lines are hammered into the middle of a scene with cringe-inducing bluntness, their incongruity aggravated by the fact that the game insists on highlighting the fact that kids won’t get the references.

One of the better puzzles.

Aforementioned rubbish hunting and basic environment navigation aside, the actual gameplay is puzzle solving. Said puzzles are definitely not patronisingly easy, but the difficulty level is actually in danger of pushing a younger audience away; the younger the player, the quicker they’ll get frustrated with the vast majority of puzzles. Kids are smarter than adults tend to give them credit for, but some puzzles are poorly presented to the point that it’s not even immediately obvious exactly what you’re being asked to do. Worse than this, perhaps, many of the puzzles have all the charm of an exam question. You can at least immediately spend credits on the third and most in-depth hint, should you wish to get the puzzle out of the way as quickly as possible.

We certainly hope that the idea isn’t to give some kind of educational or developmental quality to the game, given that the first episode alone contains two grammatical mistakes.

It’s early days for this episodic series, with plenty of time and room to improve. For the time being however, this is a game which seems determined to shoot itself in the foot (geddit?!!?).

• Format: Vita
• Unleashed: Out Now
• Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
• Developer: Marvelous AQL, SCE Japan Studio
• Players: 1 (offline), 2-4 (online)
• Site: http://www.jp.playstation.com/scej/title/soulsacrifice/en/

The PlayStation Vita has been crying out for quality games, and action RPG Soul Sacrifice looked to be the first big hitter of 2013 for Sony’s much neglected handheld. But does the title’s early promise translate into a great game, or are Vita owners still waiting on that killer app?

At the start of Soul Sacrifice your character is imprisoned by a sorcerer called Magusar. While in your cell you come across a book called the Librom, which is a talking journal that lets you gain insight into what has transpired, and why you are in your current predicament. The events that unfold in the book are played through, and let you gain powers and items that you will eventually use to take on and defeat your captor. The powers you gain come at a price though; and the plot weaves an impressive tale which is engaging and thought provoking, although some of the voice acting is a tad melodramatic. The choices you make during the game also affect the plot, and so there are many different narrative routes that you can take, which adds extra replayability to the game.

The game is very dark, and obviously inspired by Dark Souls.

The main theme of the game is sacrifice and how power corrupts, and the game offers some difficult choices during its play time. When you defeat any of the enemies you encounter, you are given the choice to either Sacrifice or Save their souls. If you sacrifice them you are given a boost to your magic stats, and if you save them you are given a boost to your life force, and can also call them into battle as a member of your party – which means the choices you make in the game are crucial and gives the game a tactical edge. Most of the time it is a straight choice between magic or life, but at other times if you need extra life you need to sacrifice some of your magic, and vice versa. The game lets you rank up to a combined total of 100, so you can have a 50/50 split between life and magic or any combination in between, say 60 life and 40 magic depending on how you play it.

As well as balancing out your magic and life force, you also have to deal with the consequences of using the Black Rites. These are the game’s super powers that dish out severe damage, although again this comes at a cost. To unlock a Black Rite you need to sacrifice a part of your body, which weakens you in other areas. The Infernus power, for instance, unleashes a huge flame-engulfed demon that sets anything within a certain radius on fire, but you will be left with your defence reduced by 50% unless you recharge the power by using Lacrima, which you need to use sparingly. Lacrima can be gained by occasionally collecting the tears from the Librom. This means the Black Rites should only be used as a last resort.

Save or Sacrifice, the choice is in your hands!

Your inventory also allows you to collect Offerings, which you collect at the end of a stage, and these are your main weapons against the dark forces. You get six slots that you are free to fill with whichever Offerings you think will be useful in your forthcoming battle. These range from the melee attack of the Icegiant’s Arm, to the ranged attack of the Sanguine Cannon, and the healing powers of the Healing Seed. You can fuse these together to form more powerful weapons, and also boost them to enable you to cast them more often in battle. You can also use Sigils which are items used to boost your stats, which you use on your right arm. Once you progress to a certain part of the game you unlock a multiplayer co-op mode, where you team up with up to three other players online. This works really well and gives you extra breathing space to experiment when you have extra backup at hand. It can work against you though if your friends decide to sacrifice you. If this happens you are still involved in the action as a ghost, and you can float around lowering enemy defences or boosting your so-called friends’ attacks.

As you can tell, the game has a lot of depth to it, but it’s not overly complicated. The graphics are great, with some truly imaginative enemies to face, like the demonic cats, which look like Silent Hill’s version of Bagpuss. You will also encounter huge bosses like demonic cherubs with snake-like necks, and one that resembles John Carpenters The Thing crossed with a Katamari that has absorbed a giant fork. The stages are quite small, and if you explore them you can pick up soul and life shards. On occasion you will come across altars that let you heal your life bar, and areas that let you forge armour, weapons and shields to aid you in your struggle. Some areas also let you recharge your Offerings if you are running low in the heat of the battle.

There are some pretty messed up monsters in Soul Sacrifice.

While the game has a lot of depth it can get quite repetitive, with each stage having a handful of smaller enemies to battle, before hitting you with a challenging boss creature. While each stage has a different setting and giant monster to take down, the levels play out the same way. The game can also be mercilessly difficult, and sometimes even when you use the extreme power of the Black Rites your foe will still be standing. The unskippable cutscenes and quite long loading times are also a nuisance, which can get quite frustrating at times. However the game is quite addictive, and you will find yourself pulled back for one more go.

If you have a Vita then Soul Sacrifice is a deep, rewarding game with a captivating story that demands your attention. It’s an exclusive that the Vita has been crying out for, and even with its flaws it’s well worth the sacrifice of your time.

• Format: Wii U, 3DS
• Unleashed: Out Now
• Publisher: Capcom/Nintendo
• Developer: Capcom
• Players: 1-4
• Site: http://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Wii-U/Monster-Hunter-3-Ultimate-702369.html

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is, like the mostly dinosauresque creatures within it, a strange beast. For one thing, the fact that the Wii U and 3DS versions are the same game means not only that you can share saves between the two (with the help of a free 3DS eShop app), but also that a 3DS player can play co-op with a Wii U player locally – yet offline co-op with a Wii U alone is not possible. More importantly however, if this is to be your first encounter with the world of Monster Hunter, you’re in for several surprises.

Despite what you may reasonably deduce from the box art (and indeed game title), this is not all about non-stop monster hunting. There’s plenty of tracking down and slaying beasts of terrifying beauty, but there’s also at least as much micromanagement; even more, depending on how you choose to play. Virtually everything that you can stuff down your clawproof pants can be combined with something else to make a useful item, and/or converted to ‘resources’ to add new features to the safe haven of the village; and everything can be sold for cash. Thus it won’t be long at all before you grab everything from mushrooms and monster intestines to honey and metal ores until you run out of inventory space, and realise you need to think a little more carefully about what you want to bring back with you.

In theory, you’re encouraged (though never forced) to grind. This is mainly due to the fact that the best weapons and armour require you to harvest particular body parts from the most powerful monsters, which are sometimes only randomly dropped. You therefore need to regularly revisit your toughest fights if you want the best equipment – but ‘grind’ feels like entirely the wrong word. There’s always a wealth of other quests for you to dive into for a break, and very generous storage space in your hovel means that, once you make it back to the village after each quest, you should never find yourself forced to sell or abandon a rare item. When you finally do craft that special something you’ve had your eye on for the last few hours, it makes a noticeable difference.

“Did you hear something? Guys? Guys?!?”

There’s a decent range of weapons to choose from, and you’re not locked in to the one you plump for at the beginning. Most are melee, and range from quick & easy to use (dealing roughly the same amount of damage to a toothy behemoth as a papercut) to slow, cumbersome, but powerful (really stingy papercut). An added tactical consideration/complication is the elemental, er, element. This is most important to consider when forging and upgrading armour, as even basic sets have strengths and weaknesses against fire, thunder etc. Naturally, the most ferocious beasts found later in the game deal out powerful elemental attacks; but are also themselves more susceptible to at least one element. Think of it as Pokemon on steroids.

Offline, it’s all theoretically held together by a story, though this never really progresses far beyond ‘please kill this gigantic monster when you’re finally not so woefully unprepared’. That said, there’s a wry humour to the dialogue which comes as a pleasant surprise, and (usually) works very well. Even on-screen descriptions of NPCs can be amusing, one highlight being a slightly annoying young boy tagged as ‘future alpha male’. This playful atmosphere (not so present when something unfriendly is trying to separate your neck and your legs by a few hundred feet) is complemented nicely by the free DLC which has already started to appear.

Though the 3DS version is limited to local play, Wii U gamers can hunt online with up to three other people (or by themselves if they prefer) in separate quests, including the aforementioned DLC. The presentation is confusing for newcomers when they’re past the soothingly familiar lobby lists but, once you find out how to actually play with others, you’ll find two important things. Firstly, online play is just as smooth as offline. Secondly, the MH3U community is – in our experience – wonderfully friendly, even to newbies. Bear in mind however that you’ll be locked out of high-level quests until you rank up, and it’s highly advisable to pump a great many hours into offline first if you want to be anything other than comic relief online. The servers are constantly bustling, and it’s not hard to find lobbies of people farming particular monsters if that’s your thing.

The best thing about this bear-like monster is that it will try to steal any honey you’re carrying – and sit down eating it if it does. Yes, really.

In terms of comparing the two versions, there’s really not much in it apart from the online issue. The Circle Pad Pro isn’t compulsory for the 3DS, and the camera is manageable – if slightly awkward – without it. Surprisingly perhaps, the handheld version is the better looking one. This is down to some great use of the 3D effect, and the simple fact that a small screen masks the lack of detail in certain places. Oddly, the Wii U version also suffers from rare instances of frame rate drops in the village hub. Both versions, however, benefit from the wonderful art design.

While activities such as drawing up shopping lists for gear and deciding what to cultivate on the farm may sound dull, they never are for a second. Like games as diverse as Animal Crossing, Minecraft and The Sims, masterful developers have transformed the innately dull into something irresistibly addictive. When a monster unexpectedly makes short work of you, you won’t throw the pad across the room in frustration – you’ll look carefully at what went wrong, and go back to prepare yourself appropriately. Then you will triumph, and be rewarded with a sense of satisfaction and a stupid grin on your face.

All things considered, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is less a game and more a long-term relationship. Once you finally know what you’re doing after wonderfully integrated tutorials and blind experimentation, you’ll realise that it has a stronger hold over you than anything you’ve played for a long, long time.

Welcome back to No Tune Unturned, a feature in which some dude with no musical training beyond boring childhood piano lessons elaborates on why, precisely, he likes videogame music so much. The theme of fantasy has come and gone, but we don’t have to part ways with every dwarf and wolfman we’ve come to love; we merely need accept their screechy, low fidelity voices that join together in a chorus that is the Mega Drive.

As Sega’s last console that didn’t actively kick them in the shins of failure, the Mega Drive was home to a tidal wave of attitude-infused titles that fought a war with Nintendo over the impressionable minds of youngsters. Compared to the SNES, these games played differently, looked differently, and– most relevant to our purposes– sounded differently. Some have described the Mega Drive’s musical capabilities as cutting edge, able to simulate complex instruments of the modern age; others described it as an audio representation of earwax. Everyone can agree, however, that the Mega Drive had a singular sound of its own, and that’s exactly what we’re about to explore.

Introduction

From DecapAttack

Composed by Fumito Tamayama/Hiroto Kanno

DecapAttack is a game about Chuck D. Head, a re-animated mummy who throws his own face as a projectile. Invented by mad scientist Frank N. Stein, it is Chuck’s mission in life (?) to defeat the unquestionably evil Max D. Cap and thus save the world. As I can’t hope to match that level of witty wordplay, I’ll just move right along to this monstrous intro sequence; a real night of the living shred. As if torn from the beating heart of a heavy metal god, the pretend guitars fret themselves into a fury, running up and down scales as they hit notes of discord and creepiness. It’s doubtful that Chuck has a pulse, but it would theoretically shoot off the charts during 0:57′s burst of energy, finishing off the dazzling display with a kapow. DecapAttack is in fact a slippery platformer that doesn’t do much to capture this mood, but the music was certainly a-head of its time.

Rise From Your Grave

From Altered Beast

Composed by Toshio Kai

Undoubtedly the stupidest game in this feature, Altered Beast was originally a pack-in game for all those lucky Mega Drive owners who didn’t know any better. Zeus with a speech impediment resurrects a dead Roman wearing a speedo to battle the doom-welcoming Demon God in a punch-happy adventure of love and loss. The triumphant opening notes of this song have become pseudo-iconic, bringing to mind vivid visions of a man rising from his grave and systematically enlarging his muscles with magic orbs. A self-serious, imperious beat drives the action forward with dogged heroism until the tune changes at 0:52, offering the arrangement a bit more catchy sophistication than expected. Of course, the music comes to a grinding halt when the final orb is absorbed (consumed?) and the Roman undergoes a harrowing transformation wreathed in blinding fire followed by a very silly boss fight. Indeed, to hear this music is to relive a golden age of gaming.

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From Comix Zone

Composed by Howard Drossin

Comix Zone is a Mega Drive game late to the party, nearly colliding with the Saturn’s launch in the mid-nineties, and holy Batman did it push the hardware. In fact, the radical soundtrack is handily overshadowed by the absolutely gorgeous 2D art, which will certainly be featured in the upcoming series “No Pixel Un-Probed”. (I’m not actually doing that.) All the same, comic book artist Sketch has a fitting batch of songs to serenade the journey inside his own creation, chilled out and totally cool just like him. This first thirty seconds warm up the kick/punch combos with a laidback melody, but 0:24 ramps up the pace by tapping into the guts of the Mega Drive’s sound chip and coming out with a fistful of satisfying beats. The song circles back to a familiar theme, making its way to a new panel on the page at 1:23, which plays out to a clever loop. Cool, complex, and reminiscent of grunge rock, the soundtrack to Comix Zone is extremely un-Nintendo-like, capturing the Mega Drive’s tone with ample attitude.

Ravaged Village

From Golden Axe II

Composed by Naofumi Hataya

Spiritual successor to dumb beat ‘em up Altered Beast, dumb beat ‘em Golden Axe spawned two sequels from its Conan-style quest. The second of these endeavours opens with a small hamlet burning to the ground, overrun with a wretched hive of scum and villainy. Yet when the hour is darkest, three frighteningly muscular and largely unclothed heroes leap from the wreckage and start kneeing bad guys in the stomach! This dramatically rising music leaps with them, setting a tense mood of danger and epic deeds to be proud of. 0:15 floats through the heat waves of vengeance, growing hotter by the moment until the volcano of justice (we’ve switched metaphors, keep up) erupts to the clash of steel and cry of trumpets. A rhythm that would sound brilliant recorded as a Spanish guitar runs beneath the entire arrangement, keeping those awkwardly stiff legs pumping from beginning to end. One can hardly help but to get swept up in the thrill of it all.

Hydrocity Zone Act 2

From Sonic the Hedgehog 3

Composed by Masayuki Nagao

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is fast, slick, vibrant, and just a little bit too cool for school; unsurprisingly, so is the music. Something of a genre-hopping electronic pop fusion from the nineteen-eighty-nineties, these tunes are Mega Drive masterworks and pretty darn catchy to boot. Each zone is given a radically different treatment, the soundtrack shifting for every act. Hydrocity Zone is known for its waterfalls, waterslides, and… water, really. This chaotic, nearly uncontrollable splash attack is captured with a song that packs more jazzy pizazz into its first twenty seconds than most games manage in a whole soundtrack. Moments later the whole world has exploded into a musical atom bomb: there are snazzy drums, chipper horns, a soul-moving bass, a radical lead instrument I can’t even identify, and all kinds of craziness to fill in the gaps. How do so many elements running on a Mega Drive work in tandem? I don’t know; how does a hedgehog run so fast underwater? Just appreciate the resulting Sonic jam.

Idaten

From Shinobi III: Revenge of the Ninja Master

Composed by Masayuki Nagao/Hirofumi Murasaki/Morihiko Akiyama

Have you ever wanted to be a ninja? Have you ever wanted to be a ninja on a horse? To be honest, the thought never crossed my mind until playing Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master, but now I can’t imagine a world where that dream doesn’t exist. Galloping off at a breakneck speed, Idaten comes to life when Joe Musashi takes to the great plains riding bareback atop an horse that is good at jumping. An ancient Japanese flair grants the drums and bass an exciting mystic edge, fluttering in and out as if a kite on the wind. 0:32 cuts right to the chase, bearing down on the beat with the focus of ninjitsu itself, leading into a solo that sings sweetly of ninja freedom. In summary, we need more side-scrolling horse games.

Dreamer

From Streets of Rage 2

Composed by Yuzo Koshiro

I hope you’re not tired of games that feature muscular people beating up bad guys, because that was kind of the Mega Drive’s thing. Rather than trudging through old Greek-inspired architecture or smouldering hamlets, however, we’re taking this to the streets… the Streets of Rage! (Are you impressed with my mastery of the English language yet?) Dreamer uses its groovy charm to light up an amusement park with smooth music, accompanied by the static-infused screams of punks that get in your way. Refined techno/trance merges with knuckle-headed, bare-knuckled knuckle sandwiches for a violent melody that kids ate up like Frosted Flakes back in the day. Repetitive and rhythmic, this is one song that won’t hesitate to put you in the zone, especially when 0:29′s hummable chorus starts up. Although I don’t personally think it’s safe for a child in rollerblades to eat discarded hamburgers from a garbage bin located in a theme park filled with angry thugs at night, this is definitely the song I recommend he load up on his Walkman.

Battle

From Shining Force: The Legacy of Great Intention

Composed by ???

Shining Force: The Legacy of Great Intention has one of the best subtitles in the history of subtitles, and the music isn’t bad either. As a strategy RPG akin to Fire Emblem, turn-based battles pop up left and right in the form of huge, detailed, colourful dioramas. Punctuated by the trill of war, each fight begins with a tense trading of blows, working up to a spirited charge at 0:11 that unleashes fiery justice with every note. Relentless in its heroism and grandiose in its vision, this is a short song that demands an orchestration but, as that particular feature was lacking under the Mega Drive’s hood, makes do with what it has. At the very least, we can agree it was a Great Intention.

2-Player Versus Mode

From Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine / Puyo Puyo

Composed by ???

If you were to blindly guess that a Puyo Puyo clone based on Dr. Robotnik from the Sonic the Hedgehog animated children’s show would feature an intensely metal soundtrack for the game’s two-player mode, I’d tell you to get out of town, you incurable scallywag. And yet you would be totally right; Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine has a whole bunch of neat ditties, but the versus mode knocks it out of the park. The drums alone are a head-banging affair, but a sharp-as-knives guitar and smooth synth sounds turn the friendly competition into a ridiculously exciting fight to the death. These two lead instruments take turns soloing themselves into a frenzy as beans drop from the sky like paratroopers in the great Candy Land wars, ratcheting up the tension without mercy. Rainbow-coloured mounds of the bright baubles pile high; players are fretting and so is the guitar, all of them on the verge of bursting into flames. There can only be one winner, which the ominously electric music makes clear, and sooner or later– BAM! There’s no coming back when your side of the screen is chock full of evil beans, leaving only one course of action: play another round. Although lifted straight from the original Puyo Puyo, I’ve chosen this version because (like all the games listed) it’s available within Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection and Dr. Robotnik is hilarious.

Star Humming

From Ristar

Composed by Tomoko Sasaki

By the whiskers of the diabolical Dr. Robotnik, we’ve made it! The end is finally here, so what better way to take us out than a proper The End? Ristar never made much of a splash in the world of videogames, but the cheery platformer protagonist saved the galaxy anyway, which is pretty cool. As the credits roll, an endless line of Ristars parade across the screen, unable to keep from dancing along to the unbelievably catchy song of victory. A funky, feel-good beat starts up at 0:11, joined by a chorus of happy voices and purely awesome low-fi samples that invite you to sing along with open arms. The main Ristar theme breaks through at 0:58, tinged with the nostalgia of years gone by, leading into a soulful synth solo and a punchy finale that fizzles out with warm, fuzzy feeling.

How’d you like the selection of classic Mega Drive music? I was this close to including Aladdin, but there was a big fight with Disney over licensing issues and we only parted semi-amicably. I also would have added a Vectorman song except that Vectorman music is kind of boring. Maybe I’ll round up some SNES games next time, but that concept is sacrilege in this holy place of Sega, so let’s not open that can of worms just yet.

Before you go, I’d like to remind you of Twitter, the popular social media service of No Tune Unturned a part. Follow the official No Tune Unturned account for one videogame song a day until I die, forget, or decide to stop. I take requests both there and here, so type words if you’ve got them. Lastly, remember this key piece of advice for life in general:

Videogame music is great, so listen to it!

Writing about Spellirium seems a fitting act, as wordsmithery is the game’s unofficial middle name. This crowdfunded point-and-click PC adventure game from the fellows at Untold Entertainment Inc. is noteworthy not only for its intriguing ideas, but also its immediately available Alpha that we got to check out. We explored the Prologue and First Act, which set the stage for just what Spellirium has in store for any would-be-Websters that care to brave its challenges.

The plot opens with an ancient-sounding fellow beginning an exposition-heavy intro that looks to be as long as it is dull. Todd, the game’s hero, quickly brushes the idea aside, borrowing a play from the game’s irreverent humour and taking the narrative into his own hands. Todd is a but a tailor, as far as one can tell; unremarkable apart from his impressively sardonic expression. The pedestrian set-up wastes no time, however, launching into a distinctly satirical take on the classic hero’s journey as Todd finds a magical device that has him transforming properly spelled words into… magic. The specifics are unclear, but he manages to float trees, paint wool, decimate bricks and literally scare the scat out of unsuspecting monsters with a few well placed vowels. Its versatility is a lucky thing, as that’s just about all Todd has going for him.

He may not be the scariest monster, but give him time; he’s still green.

Every challenge your average adventure game would throw at you, be it the bashing of doors or doing of exceptionally menial chores, is handled through spelling. The game uses a traditional Boggle-esque grid, letting you swap tiles around at the cost of your limited meter, but looks to freshen things up by using your given activity to change the rules on you. Some of our favourite examples were having to find proper synonyms to “shear” Todd’s loyal sheep, or completing a bard’s pitiful attempt at music by filling in his blanks with some appropriately-rhymed words. The colourful world and adventures provide a clever context for the usually abstract toils of wordplay. while also managing to sidestep the usual fare of point-and-click head-scratchers that can leave many a player frustrated.

Not all of Todd’s quest is so linear, however. We found ourselves fighting monsters, collecting words, and trading our growing vocabulary for a variety of shiny objects. The blend of RPG and tile-swapping fun brought back memories of Infinite Interactive’s fantastic Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords; while Spellirium will be hard-pressed to match the hit’s polished ambitions, its influences are clear, and make a promising sign for Spellirium’s future. At the least, it’s looking to provide a more expansive quest than your average Monkey Island successor, which is some welcome experimentation for the genre.

Kill this monster and you might get a shiny a-word! That was a pun. Do I need to spell it out for you? I promise they’ll end sooner or letter.

Though the Alpha left us with promising concepts, it took some ample imagination to fill in the gaping blanks left by its still-unfinished state. Animations were choppy, bugs were frequent (the game froze hard on us several times), and sound was absent almost altogether. Some tweaks mechanically wouldn’t go amiss either, with an oddly forgiving loss system that allows limping through the challenges and side-content which serves more often as mandatory filler than rewarding exploration. What will go and stay in the coming months is up for money, time, and Untold Entertainment to decide; but they’ve got an exciting idea on their hands and the ambition to make it grand.

UPDATE: The EU PSN release date has been announced as 15th May. Original article follows.

Terraria has landed on PSN and XBLA today, and so it now of course has a launch trailer. It’s that bit of video up there. Click and watch it; it has literally everything.

Okay, perhaps it’s a little disingenuous to say ‘literally everything’. However, it does have (deep breath) retro pixellated graphics, a unicorn, an enemy called Skeletron, a character called Helen The Nurse, a rainbow, lovely music, a tree, Minecraft-style chipping away at the environment, rocket boots, and a heart. So, yes, surely one of the bestest launch trailers ever. As for the game itself, keep an eye out for our review, coming soon.